Episode 3
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Patrick: [00:00:00] A lot of these tips I'm sharing with you, I'm finding a lot of first year umpires just weren't aware of, which, you know, is partially on me as the training director. But ultimately, this is how we get better as a group, and this is how we fill the gaps of training. Going through it on here, and going through it in our post games.
Hey, hey, hey, I'm on vacation. Every single day, cause I love my occupation. Hey, hey, hey, I'm on vacation. If you don't like your life, then you should go and change it. Hey, hey, hey. Hey everyone, hope you didn't lose your eyesight in the eclipse. I certainly enjoyed taking a couple days off, going up to Northern Kentucky and Ohio to see family and watch it.
And now I'm back home getting ready for a game later today. So last I spoke to all of you, I was getting ready for a game myself that I was going to be working the bases on and working with a newer one of our umpires on the plate. Just wanted to go over some notes from that game that I can share with all of you and some things for you to maybe work on in your games.
So first of all, for [00:01:00] my part of the game, I told you before that I was going to be working on my pivot, taking that battle runner to second, and thought I did a pretty good job this game. Feeling more recovered from the surgery, still a little sore, but definitely going in the right direction. You know, of course, right off the bat, we had a deep shot to the right center field gap that off the bat with our good pause, read and react, it was potentially going to be trouble.
So I took a long time to read it, but once I read that we weren't going to have the ball going out of play and we weren't going to have anybody making a catch or a diving attempt at a catch, came in and still was able to quickly get to a point where I could pivot. See the toucher first, take the batter runner a second, but that's what's going to happen sometimes, right?
Sometimes we do it to take longer to pause, read and react, but especially for, you know, younger umpires, which in my late twenties still makes me a significantly younger umpire than the average, you know, we have enough speed to be able to make up for that. There will probably be a time where down the road, I'm not as [00:02:00] fast.
And hey, if that happens. When in doubt, go out and let your partner take it. But, I was able to get in, be on the grass, still on the infield when the Batarunner touched first. So, able to get the mechanic down from there. Now, moving on from my part of the game, I do want to talk about my partners. And before going into this, I've already given him these notes.
We've talked about it. We talked about it in our post game. And it's so important that when we're working with new umpires, we give them this feedback. This is a first year umpire in his mid forties, which makes him pretty young in our profession. And if he can really focus on improving as an umpire moving forward, there's really no reason that he couldn't be a championship official at some point.
There's plenty of time to develop into that. It's just important that when we're working with these new umpires, we have to give them feedback especially on the little things that can become bad habits and will be harder to break down the road. So to all our experienced umpires out there, please give these umpires feedback when you're working with [00:03:00] them.
You know, we don't have to be overly critical or demeaning in that, but you gotta give them these notes, even if you just give them two or three of them, it's something for them to work on in their next game. Ultimately, there's too many umpires in our post game where we get to our car saying, nah man, you did good, or thought you looked great back there, don't have anything for you.
And that really shouldn't be the case for 99 percent of the games we're working at the youth or high school level. You know, if I'm working with a guy in single A baseball, I don't have Okay, he probably had a pretty good game and he's got most of it down, but we're still going to have a pretty good postgame discussion.
I know when I'm working with other high level college guys, you know, when we're just working a single varsity baseball game, we have a pretty long and in depth postgame discussion because we've done this long enough. We work at a high enough level that we're able to properly self evaluate and critique and discuss things.
To help us improve our games. So it's so important that you're bringing those into your post game discussions and really [00:04:00] valuing that time to give your feedback to each other. And maybe it's not your partner telling you something you can work on, but you admitting it yourself, Hey, I thought I could have done a better job at this.
This is something I'll try to focus on next time. So, real quickly, I'm just going to give you some of the notes that a lot of our new umpires may not get that I want to make sure you're able to get, at least from what I'm telling you here. A lot of this stuff I'm finding the first year umpires just weren't aware of, which, you know, is partially on me as the training director.
But ultimately, this is how we get better as a group, and this is how we fill the gaps of training, is going through it on here, going through it in our post games. So, the first note I had was, at the plate meeting, we always want to make sure we take off our sunglasses for that plate meeting. That way we can look the coaches in the eyes and start to establish that personal relationship that we need to have with these coaches.
And especially at a level like the high school level, you're going to be working with these coaches for 20 plus years. They might change [00:05:00] schools, but you'll probably see them. So try to build up that relationship. And that starts from the plate meeting. Now, one thing I saw for this umpire that I've seen for a lot of our newer umpires is they're looking at their indicators a lot.
And a lot of umpires when they do this, it makes them look less confident in their calls, especially when it comes to balls and strikes. So for me personally, and that's dangerous because anytime we're taking our eyes off the ball, which is our number one priority, weird things can happen and that's when we make mistakes.
So try to get in the habit of not looking at your indicator, especially after every pitch. For me personally, I use the Metal All Star one and what's great about that is I never have to take my eyes off the ball because it has indentions on it so that I can feel it in my hand and know what the count is, know what the number of outs is, without even looking at it.
I just know by feel. And that's something that takes some time to adjust to, but it definitely improves your keeping eyes on the ball and makes you look more confident behind the plate. If you go [00:06:00] and watch a lot of professional empires, you'll see they very rarely look at their indicator, and that's because either they've notched them like the one I use, or they're just so used to keeping up with them that it doesn't make it an issue for them overall.
This is something I think we can all work on and it just makes us look more confident on the field. Now, moving on from there, there were some other weird hand mechanics and I wanted to address first he would. Inconsistently either put the ball in play with his right hand or his left hand. Seemingly he did it with his left hand anytime there was a left handed batter.
Seemingly he always did it with his left hand when there was a left handed batter. But, for all of you out there, new, 10 years experience, whoever, if your partner is ever putting the ball in play with his left hand, doesn't need to be addressed then, absolutely needs to be addressed in the post game conferencing.
Just, hey man, make sure you put the ball forward with your right hand, we don't do it with our left. We always do it with the right hand, that's our calling hand, and that's important just because it looks confident, and it [00:07:00] makes it clear with your signals. And the other reality is just The left hand is the devil's hand.
We don't use the left hand. Staying on that topic, this umpire also had a catch no catch decision where I was in the A position, so nobody on, hit to left center field, and the center fielder made a diving attempt to catch the ball, and I knew with the new umpire, I know he got up from behind the plate and was moving in the direction of the ball, so we're gonna go with his decision on it, and that's, that's how we learn, right?
So I came in, pivoted, had a rough idea that it was a diving catch. I wasn't sure what it was, I was guessing it was probably down, but it was, it was definitely close. And, coming around, pivot, look over to see my partner, who again, did a great job getting out from behind the plate and going in the direction of the ball.
And he was about at the mound when the play happened, and I see him, and I just see him pointing down with his right hand at the ground and saying, balls on the ground. Basically just loud enough that I could hear it. This is a mechanic that we see a lot of umpires doing that [00:08:00] it's just really bad. I think it comes from gravel baseball or youth baseball or just not being trained enough.
You also get in this habit from, you honestly see this habit a lot from umpires working in kind of a lazy methodology. You know, if they're working like four travel games in a day, they just get in this bad habit of, one, no pause, re react, not going out on anything, and when they come in, they're playing umpire, setting balls on the ground.
Because apparently, you know, even though we're the base umpire coming in and pivoting, we still need to have a rough idea of whether or not the ball's on the ground for a hit or catch, no catch. But, this goes back to, for our plate umpires, and I don't want to get away from this, and actually for all our umpires, it doesn't matter if you're plate or bases, catch no catch decision, the mechanic is always going to be, if it's a catch, it's allowed, that's a catch, giving an out mechanic, you might do the out mechanic with your fist a little higher, just so it's more visible, but it's a traditional out mechanic, and if it's a no catch, it's a catch.
A safe mechanic, verbalizing [00:09:00] no catch. We don't say balls on the ground. We're not saying it just loud enough that our partner can hear it. The ball's on the ground and you need to let your partner know that the ball's on the ground. Give that safe mechanic, give a loud no catch. But that's the only way we do it.
Get that mechanic out of your mind where we're going to point to the ground and say ball's on the ground. We just, we don't need to do that. And because of this mechanic, it really hurt the crew just in terms of our look on the field and, and just the level of experience it looked like we had. Which is unfortunate, but you know, it happens and we learn from it.
But from now on, I told him sell that mechanic. You got to sell that. You got to let everyone know it was your decision and your call, because for someone who's watching and doesn't know umpiring, they don't know who's supposed to have that decision. And they might look at the base on her and say, he wasn't even looking at the ball, he wasn't looking at the play.
How could he miss that? When ultimately we know that's the plate umpires, we just got to come up and sell that. And if he had sold that, I don't think we would have had [00:10:00] any issues. And this poor physical mechanic came back to bite us again later in the game when we had a check swing. So this was with nobody on, so I was in the A position on the bases and a left handed batter checked his swing that from my position I thought he probably went and my partner came up and pointed it like a strike.
Pointing basically right at the batter, which, with what he's done, he pointed with his right hand, and that's what he'd done all game for a strike. So I'm standing there watching from the A position, like, I guess he called it, and then all of a sudden he comes out, and this time points more clearly at me with his right hand and says, Patrick, did he go?
And then, yes, I came up with a yes he did, boy was it a bad look for us, and it made it look like maybe I wasn't paying attention, but this is why it's so important that we need to be clear with that when we're going down for help. One, we should always try to say our partner's name just to make sure we get their attention.
Do it with your left hand and [00:11:00] be clear. Diddy go. Make sure your partner hears it and snap that mechanic clearly. Because the more firm we look in it, the quicker you come down and the better my call looks, the more confident people are going to be in our call. And every once in a while, you'll see an umpire in the MLB do it with their right hand, go down to their partner.
But I want to point out that they're working 140 games together in a season, so they really get to learn the intricacies of each other's zones and what their mechanics look like. So it's a lot easier for them to get away with that, but anything below that level, where we're working with a partner, maybe three times a year, right?
Gotta get in the habit of going down with our left hand. There's really no other way about that. Gotta get in that habit, going down with our left hand. Using proper hand mechanics is so important for standing out at the high school level. So, finally, to summarize all those notes, it really comes down to, how are you using your hands in the game?
I thought this umpire looked like a great high school [00:12:00] umpire in everything, except for his hand movements. And I even wrote down on my note card that they made him look unprofessional, they made him look like a low level umpire. So we gotta work on those signals, and really strive for doing it properly so that we can stand out as an official and really improve our overall confidence and look on the field.
We want to look like we're professionals when we're out there on the field. And a lot of that comes from our body language and the mechanics that we're using. And one very obvious way to see if an umpire looks professional on the field or not is how they call time. Because if you're watching them in professional baseball call time, you'll see their hands aren't just above their head like they're getting robbed at a convenience store.
Their hands are out in front of them. They're still high, their head height, or just a little above head height, but they're out in front. They're pushing in front of them to call time to get big with that mechanic. It's not a passive mechanic. I'm getting held up, hands even or behind my head, but it's firm.
They're out in [00:13:00] front. They're focused on that mechanic. Working on having hands that are always in a professional signal. and asserting that control over the game. And so getting back to my point, have strong hands. Always focus on your hands on the field and using them in a professional manner to demonstrate your control over the game.
So ultimately, we're never making any signals below our waist. We're never signaling balls on the ground or anything like that. Come up front, be loud with it, and be big on any mechanic you have to give. Make it look professional. But again, overall, I thought this umpire did a great job for a first year umpire working a very high level varsity game.
We just need to work on cleaning up the hand movements to take his game to the next level and look more professional on the field. So, moving on from that, I wanted to get to a listener question that was sent in to us by a Marietta umpire. So, I'll let you listen to their note and then we'll go from there.
Hey Patrick, had a situation I wanted to ask you about. The visiting team had a runner on third base who was [00:14:00] injured. The offensive team called time and the home team trainer came to tend to the player. When I walked over I saw blood on his uniform and told the coach the player could not play unless his uniform was changed.
The player was replaced but later was re entered unbeknown to me. I noticed it at the very end of the game and the player re entered the game with the blood still on his jersey. I was upset I didn't notice the return of the player to the field. Should we have removed the player and or enforced a penalty on the team for brining a player back in the game with blood on his jersey?
Thanks for reading my note. Okay, so let's break this note down. First of all, you are correct that If we have blood on a uniform, by rule, that uniform needs to be changed. Now, I wouldn't get too caught up on it, and it would depend on the amount of blood, honestly, for me, and how visible is it, right? If it's a white home jersey, he had a nosebleed, and he's covered [00:15:00] in blood, yeah, we're probably gonna have to change that jersey out.
If it's more common injury, like he slid in and scraped his knee and got a little bit of blood on his pants below that, I'm not planning on making a big deal out of that. Probably not even mentioning it. At most though, we might have to have the trainer come out, and they have some kind of spray. I don't know what it is.
It's a magic spray for all I care. If the trainer comes out and sprays the thing, and then says, we're good to go, you're not a trainer, who knows, maybe you could say it was a stain from the spray that she used, whatever it was. Don't get caught up on it. Make sure that you enforce it as is. The biggest thing we're worried about with that is really the pathogens that could be shared.
And I'm not a doctor here, but anything that could be spread by blood contact, right, which the trainer is supposed to have, whatever the product is that's supposed to handle that. And so if they spray the uniform like [00:16:00] that, then let's go ahead and move on. We can play the game again. It's going to depend on how visible it is.
But I'm gonna guess if you didn't notice it immediately when the player was coming back on, it wasn't that visible. So don't lose any sleep over this, let's just keep moving on. Not worth worrying about at all. And before moving on, I wanted to give y'all what I'm gonna be working on for my game coming up later today, where I'll be working the plate.
Couple of areas of focus for me, still coming out of the knee surgery recovery. I wanna work on being faster out from behind the plate. Still haven't been very consistent with it and struggle to get through a full game with it. So, still considering to build that up. And in my last game on the plate, I didn't feel like I was the most consistent I've been.
So I want to go back to, you know, what do we always work on when we're having issues? We start by going back to timing, slowing things down, making sure you're seeing it well, and go from there. But that's it for our episode today. Nothing too long. Again, if you have any questions, feel free to send them to meetpatrick at [00:17:00] umpireclassroom.
com. Thanks so much for listening, and I look forward to seeing you on the field.
